Battle royale in New Delhi: Sheila vs Vijender Gupta vs Kejriwal

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The stage is set for a live wire contest between Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, BJP heavyweight Vijender Gupta and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal in the New Delhi assembly constituency. Dikshit represents the constituency in the outgoing assembly. Although the Congress is yet to announce that Dikshit will contest from New Delhi, it is highly unlikely that she would change her constituency, especially after Kejriwal’s announcement that he will fight from whichever seat Dikhsit contests from. Vijender Gupta’s name was also finalised at the last minute amid reports that he had wanted to contest from Shalimar Bagh or Rohini. Gupta’s name was among the 62 candidates cleared by the BJP’s central election committee (CEC). After the announcement, Gupta said, “She (Dikshit) will not only be an outgoing chief minister, but after the elections she will also be an ex-MLA.” On Kejriwal, Gupta said that he doesn’t consider him a serious candidate. Party’s chief ministerial candidate Dr Harsh Vardhan would contest from his present seat Krishna Nagar constituency. Reports said that state unit President Vijay Goel has decided not to contest the elections and that the party had promised him a role in national politics when it asked him to agree to Vardhan`s name for the CM post last month. The BJP has re-nominated all the 23 sitting MLAs and has left four seats - Hari Nagar, Shahdara, Kalkaji and Rajouri Garden - to its ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Sons of three senior BJP leaders have been given tickets this time. Ajay Malhotra, son of Leader of the Opposition in Delhi assembly V K Malhotra, will fight the polls from Greater Kailash, former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma`s son Pravesh from Mehrauli and O P Babbar`s son Rajiv from Tilak Nagar. Former Delhi Mayor Arti Mehra (Malviya Nagar), Jagdish Mukhi (Janakpuri), Shikha Rai (Kasturba Nagar), R P Singh (Rajinder Nagar), Ramesh Bidhuri (Tuglakabad), Nakul Bhardwaj (Patparganj) and O P Sharma (Vishwas Nagar) are the other prominent names in fray on BJP tickets. However, son of former chief minister of Delhi Madan Lal Khurana has been left out. With PTI inputs